1. Field of the Invention
This present invention relates to systems and methods, including computer systems and methods, for conducting jury research. More specifically, the present invention relates to processes for providing experiential voir dire training for trial attorneys; for generating research data and analytic tools that help prepare attorneys for more accurate decision making during the actual trial; and to computer systems and methods for simulating a jury selection exercise using real-world data.
2. Description of Related Art
Over the years, jury consultants have played an increasingly important role in developing strategies and tactics for both civil and criminal litigations. Speaking generally, jury consultants assist attorneys by identifying and applying information concerning the beliefs, attitudes and characteristics of potential jurors. Conventional services provided by jury consultants include focus groups, mock trials, opening statement consultations, community attitude surveys, graphics support, witness assessment preparation and the like. In essence, the jury consultant serves as an interface between the attorney and the jury pool, assisting the attorney by making recommendations for getting points across in a persuasive and effective manner.
Conventional methods employed by jury consultants tend to focus on strategy development, and statistical analysis that attempts to model juror types. For example, in a conventional mock trial exercise, the jury consultant attempts to construct a jury that is a random and representative sample of the overall jury pool in the relevant area (a “representative jury”). The construction of such a representative jury often begins with a telephone survey, in which a statistically significant sample of the community in which the case is to be tried is questioned, to determine its attitude patterns and demographic make-up. Depending on the specific nature of the case, the survey may focus on a variety of factors, including marital status, occupation, membership in community groups and the like, as well as other factors more specifically related to the particular case. The jury consultant then makes an effort to construct a representative jury that mirrors that community's profile.
A mock trial is then conducted before the representative jury, in which both the plaintiff's (or prosecutor's) and defendant's sides of the case are presented. Following the mock trial, the representative jury deliberates and renders a verdict. Each member of the representative jury is then polled and interviewed, to elicit his or her reactions to what was presented. The jury consultant compiles and analyzes that data from such interviews, and makes recommendations to the attorney concerning the manner in which the case may be most effectively presented. Data concerning biases and characteristics of jurors that may help or hurt the case is also analyzed.
For example, following an observation of the mock deliberations, the jury consultant may conclude that an aggressive cross-examination of a particular witness did not sit well with the jury, and in fact alienated the cross-examining attorney from its sympathies, and therefore recommend that a less aggressive approach to the cross be taken. By way of another example, the exercise outlined above may reveal that seventy percent of the representative jurors who were blue-collar workers found for the plaintiff, while eighty percent of the representative jurors who were white collar workers found for the defendant. From this data, the jury consultant may conclude that there are strong corresponding pro-plaintiff and pro-defendant biases in the subject case, and recommend to the attorney that his peremptory strikes (i.e., strikes as to which a showing of cause is not required) be used accordingly.
Over the long run, the statistical data obtained using the representative jury approach described above may prove useful, and conventional jury consultant have in fact provided valuable and necessary services to attorneys trying cases. However, even the strongest correlation between jurors' decision making and various aspects of their background, attitudes and experiences provides nothing more than probabilities, and falls short when tested against the complexity of decision making during voir dire. This drawback is even more acute when one considers that it is individuals who do not think like everyone else, and therefore do not conform to the probability data, who tend to become leaders in jury deliberations. These factors severely limit the usefulness of probability data in conducting a voir dire. In the end, no matter how much statistical data one has available, counsel are still required to rely on personal judgment, experience and so-called gut instincts when making actual jury selection determinations.
Despite these truisms, there has been very little qualitative research focused on the critical area of jury selection. Moreover, no systems or methods have been heretofore developed for effectively training an attorney to make jury selections in the specific case he will be trying, or for constructing a mock jury which mirrors the jury that will hear the case more accurately than the representative jury of the prior art. It has been suggested to conduct mock voir dires to generate the mock jury for a mock trial. See Jury Selection The Law, Art, and Science of Selecting a Jury, 2nd Ed., J. J. Gobert and W. E. Jordan (Shepard's/McGraw Hill 1990) at 130-131. However, no systematic approaches for conducting such mock voir dires, and for analyzing and utilizing the resultant data, have been heretofore developed. Moreover, such practices have been criticized as being time consuming. Id.
Also, an attorney training organization the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) has offered programs in which mock voir dires are conducted. At the NITA program, an attorney being trained conducts a mock voir dire before a trial advocacy instructor or a professional communicator, with the end product of the exercise being a a critique on the attorney's questions and presentation skills. The NITA programs, however, do not at all focus on the gathering and analysis of data from the mock voir dire process.
There is a need, therefore, for a system and method that fills these voids, and provides a trial attorney with formal voir dire training, while at the same time developing an ever more refined set of analytic and data gathering tools for improving voir dire practice.